Re: BHA: Gary on FEW

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Well Mervyn,

I do not think there is much more to say about Bhaskar's materialism and
idealism in FEW after your last post, which if you will forgive me saying
so was really very good.

What else is there?  I am interested in the various versions of God that
are around- I would quite like to compare FEW's  god with that of Aristotle
and Spinoza etc. There does indeed seem to be a veritable smorgasbord of
gods available. Though I wonder when I say that whether that is my residual
Feuerbachianism asserting itself.

I am also interested in my own negative reactions to the notion of
unconditional love.  You made a remark about loving our fleas, I
think.  There is a Yeats' poem which has a line - Why should a dog praise
his fleas?  Why indeed?

I have been reading Bhaskar now for nearly seven years and I think I am
beginning to get some measure of him as a thinker.  I have said this before
but it strikes me that he is above all he boldly goes - a veritable Captain
Kirk of the metaphysical realm.  I love for instance when on page 132 he
chides the Buddha for not engaging in metaphysical speculation, thereby
creating a "serious problem for Buddhist epistemology."  Now that is chutzpah!

Must dash -I am about to be finally swamped by work but should reemerge
within a few weeks.

warm regards

Gary



    --- from list bhaskar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---